Saturday, March 16, 2013

This week at the library; or, All the things I have done

Programs
Random Commentary
  • I decided to list just the programs I am actively doing, not EVERYTHING even though I am involved in most of Pattie's programs - selecting books, doing registration, taking pictures, planning, etc. It's just easier this way. We did cancel Books 'n' Babies this week - I'll sub for Pattie's programs when necessary, borrowing other staff if they'll let me, but none of the staff are willing to sub for babies and frankly neither am I. Having a stranger doing the class with that age group is just pointless.
  • The Lakeland visit was from the county's special education school - they brought a small group of teens at about preschool developmental level and I did a brief tour and then storytime with them. Of course, one of the highlights was putting pennies in our spiraling well thingy. I keep a supply for small tour groups like this. The storytime was AWESOME. Sometimes the kids just stare and don't respond, but as I read books they got more involved and even the most inarticulate ones were waving their hands by the end! We read Go away big green monster by Emberley, Squeaky door by MacDonald, Don't let the pigeon drive the bus and What will fat cat sit on by Thomas. I worked really hard on doing a performance, rather than interactive where the kids jump up and down and it paid off - the teachers loved it too. I admit I am not an ideal special ed person, although I do try, but hearing the guys laugh was great!
  • I didn't get any good pictures from the fire safety program. Only about 25 people came and they sort of trickled in, but the weather was rather gloomy and I don't think I marketed this program enough. The firefighter who did the program was awesome - he has a five year old, so he's comfortable with small kids. He showed them all his gear and talked about fire safety, then he sloooowly suited up. We did have a couple kids diving for the safety of mom's lap, but nobody actually cried! He showed a slideshow of fire truck picture and a cute utube video about fire safety and then we went and looked at the truck. The kids' favorite thing was stepping on the toes of his boots to see how hard they were! We finished right as it started sleeting, so that worked out well. I hung out with the parents and chatted afterwards and everyone enjoyed the program, so it was good.
  • I had a lot of little things and big projects to finish this week and decided to keep a log, to make sure everything got done and, as I periodically do, check on my efficiency and general completed-ness. So here it is, more or less in order and not including all the minor things like updating the website, tidying the teen displays, reader's advisory, reference questions, telling off the teens for eating hamburgers in the library, looking over boxes of new books, etc. etc. etc. 
    • Updated paperwork for Kohls grants
    • Scheduled preschool visits for April (this is a whole preschool that comes every year)
    • Sent Baker & Taylor and Amazon orders (NOT helped by stupid copier breaking down)
    • Made a new flyer for 1,000 books before kindergarten for community distribution (dr.'s office asked for one)
    • Staff meeting (Including discussion of the middle school problems and some issues our consortium is facing. There are, oddly enough, quite a few similarities between the two...)
    • Phone tag with a 4-H theater group that wants to meet in the Storyroom
    • Despite a constant stream of interruptions, I managed to go through all my programs from now through May and put together a supply order list, excepting a few things I still need from Walmart, including t-shirts which I won't know until closer to the date. I am keeping two budget lists now, one of expenses and one broken down by type of supply and program so I can do one giant order at the beginning of the year instead of lots of little ones - plus, I will be able to see how much each program cost, more or less.
    • Did a tour and meet 'n' greet with our last candidate for the adult svs position
    • Processed all the new books left from last week.
    • Confirmed community room dates with Parks and Rec through August and suggested some collaboration.
    • Posted the children's programs survey (and realized it was really too long to print out so we're going to just go with online responses now) (which is not going too well and maybe this was an idea that needed to gell more. oh well.)
    • Transcribed the staff meeting minutes (I am the official notetaker)
    • Ordered some titles we are missing from Amazon UK (looked at Book Depository, but they didn't have quite what we needed)
    • Ordered die cuts, a process fraught with annoyance
    • Completed program plans for storytimes and programs from Wednesday of this week through the end of March.
    • Picked all the books for storytimes through May. Placed on hold or checked out.
    • Put books on hold for ballet display for program next week
    • Went through my stack of catalogs and review journals and transferred everything I had marked as possible purchases to Baker and Taylor carts.
    • Completed written narratives for United Way grants.
    • Updated what's happening flyers, created new publicity flyers for programs through May (except two programs) but couldn't print them b/c of the copier STILL hating us! Also had to update the calendar and registration info. 
    • Finally got all the publicity printed and distributed to schools. Took forever b/c I had to print them one sheet at a time and then manually remove them from the feeder. ARGH.
    • Sorted the accumulated children's donations. Not much worth keeping though.
    • Sent order for board books for Rubber Ducky Readers! Funding for this came from United Way.
    • Wrote a recommendation for a colleague
    • Finally cleared out the rest of the paper misc. stash on my desk including lists of manga recommendations from a teen patron
    • Finished copying possible lexiled books from the massive list Scholastic generously allows you to download, but not browse. Came out to 23 pages, 15 of which I now have to check for availability and reformat. I have been working on this project for MONTHS.
    • Created a stock of book bundles
    • Took list of lexile books and checked for availability in catalog, formatted, and added descriptions.
    • Then took the 15 pages and individually looked up each title in Scholastic for the lexile and points.
    • LEXILE PROJECT FINALLY DONE!!!

2 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

The middle school problem? Just one? My question is just how much caffeine does it take to get you through the week? My.

Jennifer said...

It's just the same thing over and over again - 30-50 middle schoolers descend upon us, people get ruffled, they get naughty, we kick some out, they come back, etc. etc. I think we should just remain calm and firm, ask them to leave when they're not actually using the library and are disturbing people who are, but some people want a final solution to the problem and there's never going to be one. At least I have convinced them that calling parents is a pointless waste of time.
And I don't drink coffee - can't stand the taste. Or soft drinks. And I've cut waaaay down on sugar over the last year. Hmmm, how AM I getting through the week? Trashy romances!